Xfinity is the trade name Comcast Cable Communications, LLC , a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, used to market consumer cable, internet, telephone and wireless services provided by the company. This brand was first introduced in 2010; before that, the service was marketed mainly under the name Comcast.
Its CEO is Dave Watson, its chairman is Brian L. Roberts, and his CFO is Catherine Avgiris. Xfinity rose from $ 23.7 billion in revenue in 2007 to $ 50.04 billion in 2016.
Video Xfinity
Branding
In February 2010, Comcast began repackaging its customers' triple play service offer under the name Xfinity; Comcast Digital Cable was renamed "Xfinity TV", Comcast Digital Voice became "Xfinity Voice", and Comcast High Speed ​​Internet became "Xfinity Internet". Re-branding and related promotional campaigns are scheduled to coincide with the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The Xfinity rebranding has become controversial as a purported attempt to avoid the negativity of the Comcast brand. Time considers Xfinity to be one of the worst corporate renamals of all time, asking "Will the name change work? Probably not, but at least it will sound a bit better when you're on hold... with Xfinity."
Maps Xfinity
Internet Services
Comcast Internet availability by country
Comcast is the largest cable internet access provider in the United States, serving 40% of the market in 2011. On April 27, 2017, Comcast has 25,131 million high-speed Internet subscribers.
Comcast began offering internet services in late 1996, when it helped find @Home Network, which sells Internet services through Comcast cable channels. This agreement continues after merging @ Home with Excite. When the combined company Excite @ Home filed for bankruptcy in 2002, Comcast shifted about 950,000 of their Internet customers completely to their own network.
Comcast High Speed ​​Internet Packages Available:
Speed ​​is given in megabits per second, where 1 megabit = 0.125 megabytes = 125000 bytes.
Along with the price of an Internet subscription, Comcast requested an additional user $ 11.00/month to rent a cable modem. This fee has been viewed by some as unfair, but is waived for customers who buy their own modems. Comcast charges $ 20 for internet installation, but the fee is waived for customers who choose to install themselves.
In 2011, Comcast launched the "Internet Essentials" program, which offers cheap internet service for families with children eligible for free or reduced school lunch rates. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires this budget service as a condition to enable the acquisition of Comcast NBCUniversal in January 2011. Of the approximately 2.60 million households eligible for the program, approximately 220,000 households participate in the program as of June 2013. Similar This program is available from other internet providers through Connect2compete.org non-profit. Comcast has stated that the program will receive new customers for a total of three years. In March 2014, when he met with the FCC on the merger of Time Warner Cable, Comcast's vice president David Cohen told reporters that an important internet program would be extended indefinitely.
At the 2017 Consumer Electronics Exhibition, Comcast launched a new software platform for Arris 1682G and Cisco 3941T/3939 modems, which will offer a redesigned configuration interface, support for remote management and management via the Xfinity mobile app, and seamless integration of smart supported home devices with other Xfinity platforms like Xfinity TV. The new platform was launched under the xFi brand in May 2017. Comcast also launched the xFi Advanced Gateway, a new router designed to facilitate faster Wi-Fi speeds, including support for 802.11ac Wave 2, and internal support for Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread , and Zigbee for better integration with Internet devices of things, and support for widespread lines of Wi-Fi Extenders (produced by Plume).
Xfinity WiFi
Comcast operates a public Wi-Fi hotspot network for Xfinity internet customers known as Xfinity WiFi, which consists of a mixture of public and business-installed hotspots, and generated optically-backed Xfinity home gateways. Users on the "Performance" level or higher receive unlimited use of this hotspot after logging in with their Xfinity Account. By default, all Xfinity dual-band home gateways operate private networks, and public networks with SSID "xfinitywifi". To save bandwidth, this hotspot is limited to 5 users simultaneously. Customers may choose not to provide Xfinity WiFi through the Comcast website, or by installing a third-party router.
Comcast has received criticism for this practice, with critics claiming that the company is abusing its customer resources (including bandwidth and electricity) to provide services to other customers, as well as concerns about security, and liability for actions taken by users when connected to this home hotspot ; in 2014, a class action lawsuit filed in California, citing violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and similar state laws for this reason. Comcast defends service by stating that public Wi-Fi is blocked from devices connected to home networks, designed to have minimal bandwidth impact to "support strong usage", and that customers will not be held responsible for other actions. users, as the offender can be tracked using the Xfinity account they use to log in to the network. The lawsuit was brought to arbitration.
After Hurricane Irma, all Xfinity WiFi hotspots in Florida are opened to non-Comcast subscribers.
Data limits
Initially, Comcast had a policy of stopping broadband subscribers using "excessive bandwidth", a term the company rejected in its terms of service, saying only that customer use should not "represent (in Comcast's single appraisal) an excessive burden on the". The company's response to press requests suggested a limit of several hundred gigabytes per month. In September 2007, Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas said the company defined "overuse" as a counterpart of 30,000 songs, 250,000 images or 13 million emails in a month.
Comcast introduced a monthly bandwidth limit of 250 GB for broadband services on October 1, 2008, combining uploads and downloads to monthly limits. If the user exceeds the threshold three times in six months, the customer's housing service may have been terminated for a year. A spokesman stated that this policy has been around for some time, but for the first time Comcast has announced certain usage limits.
Because the cap provoked a strong negative reaction from some, Comcast decided to change its policy in 2012. Under the new system, the lid is increased to 300GB in some markets, and consumers who exceed this limit are charged $ 10 for every 50Ã, GB above the limit. Customers can purchase $ 30 add-on for "unlimited" data. In a leaked memo, Comcast employees are instructed to state that the policy is to "Justice and provide more flexible policies to our customers", and not to control network congestion.
On April 27, 2016, Comcast announced that it would raise its data limit in the test market to 1 TB by June 2016; the company stated that "more than 99 percent of our customers are not approaching using terabytes." The decision to raise the hat comes following the implications of increased supervision around them by the FCC: in its approval of the purchase of Time Warner Charter by the Charter of Communications, the Commission stipulates that the Charter shall not apply hats. As before, an additional $ 10 charge applies to every 50 GB above the limit, and customers can purchase add-ons for "unlimited" data, but the price increases to $ 50. In October 2016, Comcast announced that bandwidth limits will be applied at most of the market (outside of New York and the northeast) from November 1, 2016. Current data usage plans do not apply to Gigabit Pro tier of service, Internet Business Customers, customers in Bulk Internet agreements, and customers with Prepaid Internet.
Network and peering management
In September 2007, there were rumors among tech blogs that Comcast choked or even blocked Internet traffic transmitted through the BitTorrent protocol. Comcast strongly rejects allegations of blocking traffic, stating that "Comcast does not, does not, and will not block Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services", and that "We are involved in reasonable network management". After more extensive confirmation that Comcast strangled BitTorrent traffic, Comcast said that it sometimes slows BitTorrent traffic to speed up other types of data, but refuses to specify. Following the announcement of an official investigation by the FCC, Comcast voluntarily terminated traffic discrimination. The FCC investigation concluded that Comcast's deceleration policy was illegal. However, after filing a lawsuit in September 2008, Comcast canceled the illegality of its network management in 2010, as the court ruled that the FCC had no authority to enforce net neutrality under the current FCC regulatory policy. The court suggested not the current framework, the FCC moved to a general operator structure to justify its enforcement. In February 2014, the FCC has announced new justifications, but avoided the broader regulation required by general operator frameworks.
In 2010, Netflix signed an agreement with Level 3 Communications to bring its data. Shortly afterwards, Level 3 entered a heated debate over whether Level 3 had to pay Comcast to bridge its respective networks, in an agreement known as peering. The continued disagreement as the current Netflix operator, Cogent Communications, explicitly puts an error for Netflix bottlenecks at Comcast and several other ISPs. In February 2014, after rumors surfaced that Comcast and Netflix had reached an unspecified agreement, the companies made sure that Netflix paid Comcast to connect to its network. The agreement details are not public, and speculation does not agree on whether the agreement is a precedent of net neutrality, or a continuation of the normal peering agreement.
Landline phone
Xfinity Voice (formerly Comcast Digital Voice ) is a landline service launched in 2005 in selected markets, and for all Comcast markets in 2006. Longer Comcast services, Comcast Digital Phones, continues to offer services for a short period, until Comcast closes it around the end of 2007. In 2009, after completing the transition from their old service, Comcast has 7.6 million voice subscribers. By the end of 2013, Comcast Digital Voice has reached 10.7 million subscribers.
In early 2012, Comcast stands as the third largest residential phone provider in the United States. At that time the company supplied 9.34 million landlines.
Xfinity Voice allows communication over the internet using VoIP, but uses a private network instead of a public IP address, which allows Comcast to prioritize voice data during heavy traffic. In technical terms, on the Comcast Coaxial Hybrid Fiber network, calls are placed into the Unliciated Grants Service stream, based on DOCSIS 1.1 Quality of service standards. For customers, this has the benefit of preventing network congestion from interruptions with call quality. However, this separation of traffic into separate currents, or Smart pipes, has been seen by some as a breach of clean neutrality, which calls in place of equal treatment for all data, or stupid pipes. Other non-Comcast VoIP services on the Comcast network must use lower priority public IP addresses. This practice was questioned by the FCC in 2009. In their response, Comcast stated that services using telecommunications are not always telecommunications services, and noted the current appointment of FCC Comcast Digital Voice as an information service that excludes it from telecommunication service regulations. Comcast also said that since Comcast Voice is a separate service, it is not fair to directly compare data for Comcast Voice with data for other VoIP services.
Since VoIP phone service is not automatically associated with physical address, Xfinity Voice uses E911 to help 911 service operators to automatically search for 911 calling sources. Voice calls are sent as digital streams through Comcast network, signals converted to plain analog phone line service in cable modem, which produces on a standard analog RJ-11 jack.
Cable television
Comcast cable television subscribers peaked in 2007, with approximately 24.8 million subscribers. Comcast has lost customers every year since 2007, with the first quarterly increase in subscribers since its peak occurred in the fourth quarter of 2013. By the end of 2013, Comcast serves a total of 21.7 million cable subscribers. The average cost of Comcast Digital Basic cable subscriptions has increased by 72% from 2003 to 2012. In Q4 2015, Comcast added 89,000 new video subscribers which is their best result in 8 years.
In addition to the price of the subscription, since July 2012, Comcast imposed a Rule Recovery Fee of various sizes to "recover the additional costs associated with government programs." Starting January 2014, Comcast also charges Broadcast TV Fee to "pay for the increased cost of retransmitting broadcast television signals."
In May 2012, Comcast launched the X1 (code name "Xcalibur"), a new hardware and software platform for its television service, in Boston. It provides wider support for integrated internet content, as well as applications for video streaming services, and remote controls that accept voice recognition input. This is scheduled for a wider, national availability by the end of 2013.
Return shipping cost
Beginning in the mid-2000s, television stations increasingly required cable companies like Comcast to pay retransmission fees in exchange for permission to broadcast their content. (Historically, TV broadcasters made money almost exclusively through advertising.) This fee has been a hot topic of negotiation between broadcasters and distributors, with multiple blackouts that prompted the US Federal Communications Commission to publicly express serious concerns in 2011. Comcast has an agreement ten years with CBS and Disney, as well as an agreement with Fox and others, but the financial details of these transactions are not public.
Since the increase in retransmission costs, distributors like Comcast are paying substantial fees for the re-transmission of broadcast television, which is free in the air for consumers. Comcast has set a $ 1.50 Broadcast TV Charges to cover a portion of the cost of obtaining a permit from the station to re-send the free station, broken down separately for the consumer. Comcast's subsidiary, NBCUniversal, is one of several broadcasters on the American Broadcasting Cos. V. Aereo, Inc., on the question of whether Aereo is a retransmitter (which will require paying for retransmission fees). The case was decided on June 25, 2014 to support the broadcasters in decision 6-3.
Home security and automation
Comcast offers home security and home automation services known as Xfinity Home, in several service areas. This service provides customers who are monitored by burglars and fire alarms, surveillance cameras, and home automation. Critics of their technology found that "thieves can easily damage systems to trick homeowners into thinking they are protected when they are not." Wired magazine reported the vulnerability has the potential to attract thieves, citing security expert Tod Beardsley: "A mark designed to prevent an attacker could be a sign inviting an attacker.
Mobile service
On April 6, 2017, Comcast announced its Xfinity Mobile wireless service, which is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) using the Verizon Wireless network. This service provides restrictions (ranging from 1 GB, with additional gigabytes to be purchased) and "unlimited" data packets, along with access to the Xfinity WiFi hotspot. Comcast promotes Xfinity Mobile as part of quadruple games with other services; analysts consider the offer in response to the acquisition of AT & amp; T against DirecTV to add a national satellite provider in addition to its existing wired and wireless services, and an increased boost to mobile television.
Comcast Business
In addition to residential consumers, Comcast also serves businesses as customers, targeting small businesses with fewer than 20 employees and mid-size businesses from 20 to 500 employees. In 2009, Minneapolis-Saint Paul became the first city where Comcast Business Class offers 100 Mbit/sec Internet service, which includes Microsoft Communications Services. Comcast Business Class Service The Internet has no bandwidth usage limits.
Comcast Business services are used for sale exclusively through direct sales employees. In March 2011, Comcast created an indirect sales channel called the Solution Provider Program, a comprehensive indirect channel program that enables telecommunications consultants and systems integrators to sell Comcast services such as Internet Business Classes, Voice, and high-capacity Ethernet services to small and medium business -market. The program offers recurring commissions for sales partners based on monthly income, and Comcast will provide, install, manage and bill for this service. For the initial launch of the Solution Provider Program, Comcast enrolled three national deputy masters - Telarus, based in Salt Lake City, Utah; Intelisys, based in Petaluma, California; and Telecom Brokerage Inc (TBI), based in Chicago. The sub-agent sales partner must work with one of these three partners in the early stages of the program. Comcast Business's indirect channel sales head is Craig Schlagbaum, former head of the Level 3 Communication channel.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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